A lot of novice Stoics fall into the trap of believing that you're somehow far more worthy and noble if you put yourself in front of temptation and resist it consistently. Whether it's sticking to an exercise routine, watching less Netflix, working on your side hustle or being virtuous, going all-in on willpower will not get you there. 

Tough love: what matters is the objective result, not how hard you've tried. I've said it before, but it bears repeating: Stoicism is not the philosophy of giving up and accepting whatever happens. It's the philosophy of doing your best and then recognizing that on a fundamental level, the outcome is not within your control.

The difference is subtle and yes, it does mean that you have a duty to maximize your chances of reaching your target before you're off the hook.

💡  First things first: willpower is not in short supply and believing that it is might hinder your progress. However, this fickle beast requires constant training - much like a muscle. You should aim to resist your impulses a bit better everyday, but you need to be realistic about how much temptation you're capable of handling at the same time. As in all things, a little self-awareness goes a long way. 

Since you're reading this, I'm willing to bet that you're a complex creature with a wide variety of personal and professional goals - this is exactly what makes a willpower-only approach so inadequate. Like a character in an RPG, you never know where you will encounter your next enemy (read: temptation) around the playing field. Your stamina is limited - you need to dose your efforts such that you have enough to battle all of them. It's easier if you have a strategy.

Creating an environment that supports you by removing the triggers of undesirable behavior is not an unvirtuous shortcut, it's simply smart. Think of it as front-loading the work you would need to do to every time you decide to stick to the self-improvement journey instead of giving in to old habits. 

🧠  Let's look at a concrete example to better understand how a system can help you stay on track. 

Say you want to lose weight by adjusting your diet. You resolve to avoid the usual suspects: chips, chocolate and soda. They are normally lying around your kitchen, living room table and desk, waiting to seize your attention and put the thought of snacking at the back of your mind. Sure, you could give yourself a mental spanking every time you want to reach out for them and you'll succeed the first 9 times, but I guarantee that you'll be munching away by the 10th. 

You've been there and it's disappointing, but it's not entirely your fault. Decision fatigue is a well-documented phenomenon and it's causing you to take worse decisions if you've already had to take too many within a short time span. I know you think of yourself as an epitome of rationality (I know I do!), but that's simply not the way our minds are built. Here's a better representation: think of your capacity to make good decisions as bar that depletes every time you make a choice. 

Every time you fight the urge to eat, the bar depletes further, until you give in to the temptation. This, of course, assumes that 'to snack or not to snack' is the only choice you have to make that day - which couldn't be farther from the truth. It's also obvious how this constant fight with yourself could throw you off your game on an even larger scale: even if you have a larger-than-normal bar, you wouldn't want to use up all of it on a single goal.